Ethiopian Wife of Moses - All the Women of the Bible - Bible Gateway Ethiopian Wife of Moses Numbers 12:1 We know the name of the first wife of Moses, and the names of his children (see href="/id/31434434-3639-4138-2D34-3843342D3343">Zipporah and Miriam ), but his second wife whom he took after Zipporah’s death is an unnamed Cushite. Many Cushites followed Israel out of Egypt, and marriage with them was not forbidden by the Law ( Exodus 34:16 ). This second marriage caused a rift between Moses and his sister and brother. Not all second marriages turn out happy. © 1988 Zondervan. All Rights Reserved Bible Gateway × Step 1 - Create an account or log in to start your free trial. Starting your free trial of Bible Gateway Plus is easy. You’re already logged in with your Bible Gateway account. The next step is to enter your payment information. Your credit card won’t be charged until the trial period is over. You can cancel anytime during the trial period.

Click the button below to continue. Next × Step 1 - Create an account or log in to start your subscription. You’ve already claimed your free trial of Bible Gateway Plus. To subscribe at our regular subscription rate of $3.99/month, click the button below. Next × Already Subscribed It looks like you’re already subscribed to Bible Gateway Plus! To manage your subscription, visit your Bible Gateway account settings . Close this window × Want an ad-free Bible Gateway? Try Bible Gateway Plus, a brand-new service that lets you experience Bible Gateway free of banner ads! It also gives you instant access to over 40 Bible study and inspirational devotional books, including the NIV Study Bible. With Bible Gateway Plus, you can experience and understand God's Word in life-changing new ways, without the distraction of ads. Try it free for 30 days—you can cancel at any time. Following your 30-day free trial, Bible Gateway Plus is only $3.99/month. Try Today What is the name of Moses' wife? Submit questions - New Articles QUESTION: What was the name of Moses wife ? How many children did he have? What background information can you give?

ANSWER: Before we get to the name of Moses' mate, let us take a short and compressed look at his life. He was born a Hebrew in Egypt in 1525 B.C. during the reign of Amenhotep I. The Egyptian pharaoh had commanded that all infant Hebrew boys be killed at their birth , but the Hebrew midwives feared God, and disobeyed his command. When Moses' mother could no longer hide him, she laid him, in a bulrush boat, and placed it in the reeds along the shore, where an Egyptian princess found him, and wanted him for herself. A young woman asked if the princess wanted a Hebrew nurse for the child, and upon a positive response, returned Moses to his mother. In those days, a nurse reared her ward for several years, so the child had time to learn the things of God . The princess named him Moses meaning 'drawn from the water' (Exodus 1:7 - 2:10). When Moses was about 40 years old, he saw an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew. He was so angry at what he saw that he killed and buried the taskmaster in the sand.

Unfortunately, the murder was witnessed so, as a fugitive, he fled to Midian, where he would live as a herdsman for 40 years and make Zipporah, daughter of a Midianite priest, his wife. They had two sons, Gershom and Eliezer (Exodus 2:11 - 22, 18:3 - 4). Nothing else seems to be known about their children except that they were eventually married and had children. Next comes the famous burning bush event , and God's command that he return to Egypt. He, and his brother Aaron , were to convince the pharaoh to let the Hebrews - now known as Israelites - go free (Exodus 2:23 - 4:17). Eventually, the pharaoh complied , and Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and slavery in 1445 B.C. After the Exodus, instead of entering the land of Canaan, the children of Israel are made to wander the wilderness for forty years because of their sins (Deuteronomy 8:2). After this period, Joshua leads the tribes of Israel into the Promised Land in 1405 B.C.

A Visual Sermon: thought-provoking, Bible-based, visually rich, and shareable without acknowledgement The wives of Moses Reading: Exodus. 2.15bï¿½3.2; 4.18-26; 18.1-9 My mother tells the story of the time her employer fired her for her own good. She was an assistant in a stationery shop in Hamburg when Hitler was in power. The shop owner, a Jew, saw trouble coming and recommended her for a job at another shop owned by a Gentile. A few nights later, Kristallnacht (ï¿½Crystal Nightï¿½) occurred ï¿½ a pretty name for an ugly event. Thugs roused by the Nazisï¿½ anti-Semitic speeches smashed the windows of properties owned by Jews, looted their shops and burned down synagogues. Over 30,000 Jewish men were imprisoned in concentration camps and this night started the movement which ended in six million Jewish deaths.

Racism and genocide didnï¿½t start or finish with Hitler - the trial of Ratko Mladic and other genocides in Ruwanda, Chechnya, Sudan etc remind us that it carries on and carries on - but we see in the life of Moses how far back it goes. We donï¿½t hear much about Mosesï¿½ married life. Today we find out why - Mosesï¿½ marriage wasnï¿½t exactly a good role model for other Jews - and most people would like to forget about the reaction to his marriage - I suppose not many congregations want to hear about rape and racism - and if you arenï¿½t feeling strong enough for that this morning, the childrenï¿½s workers will probably welcome your help Actually, the rape bit in the story isnï¿½t very serious, but the racism is - it is as bad as you can get, and God gets extremely angry about it - but Iï¿½m rushing ahead too far. Lets talk about a love story first Moses and Zipporah met in very romantic circumstances.

- she was a damsel in distress, and Moses rescued her from her assailants - it looks like there was one well which was used by many herders - and of course the roughest and toughest jumped the queue - Zipporah and her six sisters used to fill their troughs at the well each day - probably they carried the water back to where-ever their fatherï¿½s flock was - but if male herders came along, theyï¿½d push them aside and help themselves - theyï¿½d probably even take the water the women had already drawn up But this day Moses came along. And he wasnï¿½t someone to be fooled with - he was on the run from Egypt for having killed an Egyptian slave driver - and he scared off the male shepherds so the sisters got their water uninterrupted - when they explained how theyï¿½d got home in record time, their father Jethro said: Where is he then? Didnï¿½t you invite him back for a meal? - so they fetch Moses, he marries Zipporah, and they live happily ever after Well, not quite.

And for the reasons why not, we have to read between the lines - Zipporah was presumably the oldests ï¿½ because she was picked to marry him - sh'de probably guess this would happen if she invited him back, and chose not to - so it wasnï¿½t exactly love at first sight. And perhaps it never turned into love - knowing you have to marry someone isnï¿½t a recipe for falling in love - knowing human nature, some of the younger sisters probably made more fuss of him and perhaps heï¿½d fall for one of them - but now we are in danger of reading too much into the story - in any case, put behind you all your modern ideas of marriage for love.

- this was a man with too many daughters who finally finds an eligible man They had a child, and called him ï¿½Gershomï¿½ ie ï¿½foreignerï¿½ - Moses said: Iï¿½ll call him ï¿½foreignerï¿½ because thatï¿½s what Iï¿½ve becomeï¿½ - in a fairy tale, heï¿½d say: Iï¿½ll call him ï¿½happinessï¿½, for Iï¿½m happy here - or: Iï¿½ll call him ï¿½welcomeï¿½ because thatï¿½s how you made me feel. - but this is reality. Moses called him ï¿½foreignerï¿½. He didnï¿½t feel at home. Moses felt like a foreigner, but not because he was aware of his Jewishness - he even forgot to circumcise his son ï¿½ a mistake which would haunt him - all Jews were circumcised.

It was a national trait which held them together - it was done on the 8th day, and presumably Moses was already circumcised - because when the Egyptian princess found him she knew he was Jewish - and yet Moses forgot to circumcise his son, because he forgot he was Jewish - he wasnï¿½t feeling homesick for Jewish company. He felt like an Egyptian Perhaps thatï¿½s why Moses hadnï¿½t minded marrying Zipporah - after all, she wasnï¿½t exactly the nice Jewish girl his mother would have chosen - she was a foreigner herself ï¿½ a Midianite - in genealogies, this nation descended from Keturah, Abrahamï¿½s second wife - along with Dedan and Sheba etc. ï¿½ many other nations descended from her - in other words, Zipporah was no more Jewish than the Queen of Sheba - Midianites werenï¿½t exactly friends of Jews. Their slave-traders took Joseph!

- and later they banded together with Moabites to try and destroy Israel - the battle against Midian was the bloodiest in Mosesï¿½ career (see Num.25&31) And it wasnï¿½t as if Zipporah was actually a worshipper of Jehovah - her father Jethro was a Midianite priest, so his daughtersï¿½ religion was settled - so this definitely was not the best marriage for a future leader of the Jews - though of course Moses had no idea that leadership was ahead of him Time passed. The old Pharoah died, but Israelï¿½s slavery didnï¿½t end with him - then one day, Moses took his father-in-lawï¿½s sheep up the slopes of Horeb - a rocky prominence in the desert which we know better as Mt. Sinai - and there God called him to go back to Egypt to free his people So he asked Jethroï¿½s permission to take Zipporah with him (4.18) - Iï¿½m not sure why he needed permission.

Perhaps it was just being polite - but in this highly abbreviated narrative everything counts - the hint in the text is that he wanted his blessing. That of a foreign priest! - but I also wonder if he needed help in persuading Zipporah to come with him - if there wasnï¿½t much love between them, she wouldnï¿½t want to go with him During the journey, disaster struck, though in a mysterious way (4.4.24-25) - it says that ï¿½the Lord met him and sought to kill himï¿½. How? Who? - most translations add ï¿½Mosesï¿½, but the unnamed ï¿½himï¿½ might be his son - we donï¿½t know what exactly happened, or how his life was threatened - we donï¿½t know why it happened now, and not before. It remains mysterious.

Zipporah saved the day: she grabbed a knife and cut off her sonï¿½s foreskin - I donï¿½t know how old he was but old enough to complain loudly - this was manï¿½s work, and it should have been done several years before - Zipporah turned out to be more aware of Jewish law than Moses - and she was disgusted. She threw the foreskin at Moses feet and swore at him We have to guess what her words meant. They donï¿½t occur elsewhere - she called him ï¿½a bridegroom of bloodï¿½. What does that mean? - whatever it was, it was very bad, because we are told what it really did mean in the next verse - it says: ï¿½When she said ï¿½bridegroom of bloodï¿½ she was referring to circumcision.ï¿½) - in other words: Dear Reader, she didnï¿½t mean what you think she meant. She was merely referring to the blood of circumcision. - call me cynical, but I think this means that she meant something else - the translation ï¿½bridegroomï¿½ is a little coy.

Hebrew chatan is a sexual word - half the time it refers to ï¿½someone related by sexï¿½ ï¿½ ie a ï¿½son-in-lawï¿½ - the other times it means a bridegroom doing his duty in the bridal chamber - thatï¿½s the part of a wedding ceremony when they have to ï¿½do itï¿½ the first time - as in Joel 2.16 where he says: Interrupt everything and come, and even ï¿½Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.ï¿½ - so, what is a ï¿½bridegroom of bloodï¿½.

Well, it is a bit nasty - it is, effectively, a first-night hurried rape resulting in a badly torn hymen - this sounds like a long-harboured grudge which came out because she was angry - perhaps Iï¿½m wrong, and perhaps, as the next verse says, she didnï¿½t mean this Whatever she meant, this ghastly experience was probably the start of the end - they had another son, but soon they got divorced and she returned to her father - their second son was presumably born after Moses met Pharaoh because he called him Eliezer, saying "My father's God was my helper; he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh." (Ex.18.4).

- but the couple separate and the donï¿½t meet again till theyï¿½re living in the desert - not until after theyï¿½ve been attacked by Amalekites and defeated them Suddenly Moses is told that Jethro is on his way with Zipporah and the boys - now, thereï¿½s a surprise: the children both stayed with the mother, not the father - by Ancient Near Eastern customs youï¿½d expect the father to keep the children - they are economic assets, especially if they are boys, and yet she took them - this suggests that even at their divorce she is the stronger partner.

- I think it means that she divorced him or, in practice, simply walked out on him It has been some time, as seen by the news which Moses tells to Jethro - it includes ï¿½all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptiansï¿½ (18.8) - this suggests that Zipporah had left Moses before the actual Exodus - some time during those frustrating negotiations with Pharoah and the plagues - she walked out on him at a time when he badly needed support - or perhaps at a time when he was too busy to take much notice of her - we canï¿½t guess at what was going on, but we can guess the marriage was rocky - and so it ended. - the whole nation complained against Moses, led by Aaron and Miriam - Aaron was the High Priest, and Miriam had led the people in worship - and they were Moses brother and sister. How much more personal could this be? - they said that Moses was no longer fit to lead the people because of his wife Why was this wife so terrible? Not because she was another foreigner. So why? - perhaps it was because she was lower class, or had a bad past?

- often racists donï¿½t say exactly what they mean. They make excuses - I expect that Aaron and Miriam brought up all kinds of reasons - no-where in this passage is racism mentioned, but it is clearly there - and Moses didnï¿½t defend himself or her. The text adds that he was the most humble man on all the earth. And anyway, no-one was in the mood to listen - God called the three of them to one side, and God was livid with them God knew what was behind this, and who was really behind it - so God punished Miriam not Aaron (presumably God knew she led him on) - and the way that God punished Miriam showed that this was a matter of colour - God turned her white all over. White like a dead baby. White with leprosy. - it's as if God said: So you you don't like black? Then Iï¿½ll make you white instead.

- this meant she had to live as an outcast from the camp, for the rest of her life - but Moses prayed for her and God healed her, after 7 days sheï¿½d never forget The most disturbing thing about this story is that we never hear it in church - I searched the database at SermonCentral.com which contains 120,000 sermons - I found an impressive 24 sermons on this chapter, but only one of them on racism - it is as if the church wants to cover up the past and not look at it - well, today we have stared at it in the face. It is ugly, and God hates it.

Of course we think we are immune from this - we donï¿½t hate any ethnic groups and none of us are guilty of genocide - but racism is simply the unintelligent extreme of judging by appearances - think how many times you have jumped to conclusions about someone - their appearance, their clothing, their accent, made you assume things - and if it made you assume bad things, that is the same as racism - of course this is just part of being a lazy human, coming to lazy conclusions - but remember ï¿½ it is also something which God hates - because that person you have mentally disparaged is someone God loves PS. Rubens painted a wonderful sensitive portrayal of this story. See here . Zipporah: Bible | Jewish Women's Archive by Tikva Frymer-Kensky Zipporah is a Midianite woman who becomes the wife of Moses. After Moses kills an Egyptian, he flees from the pharaoh and settles among the Midianites, an Arab people who occupied desert areas in southern Transjordan, northern Arabia, and the Sinai.

He meets the seven daughters of Reuel, priest of Midian, at a well; rescues them from shepherds who are harassing them; and fills their jugs with water. In gratitude, Reuel (called Jethro or Hobab in other biblical passages) offers Moses hospitality, then gives him his daughter Zipporah in marriage (Exod 2:21–22). She and Moses have two sons, Gershom and Eliezer (Exod 18:3–4). Zipporah is the heroine of a bizarre incident that takes place as Moses heads back to Egypt with his wife and sons (Exod 4:20). On their way, at a night encampment, “The Lord met him [Moses] and tried to kill him” (Exod 4:24). No reason is given, just as no reason is given for the angel’s attack on Jacob as he came back from Mesopotamia (Gen 32:24). Jacob was alone and wrestled with the angel all night; Moses is with his wife, who comes to his rescue. She takes a flint and cuts off her son’s foreskin.

She then flings the foreskin at “his” feet, declaring that he is hatan damim to her (Exod 4:26). Zipporah’s enigmatic statement has two possible explanations: she flings the foreskin at Moses’s feet, saying, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me” (NRSV), or she flings it at God’s feet, saying, “You are a blood father-in-law to me.” (Damim means “blood,” and hatan can mean either “bridegroom” or “father-in-law.”) Either way, her deed and words stop the attack. The story is already difficult for the narrator, who adds a comment that hatan damim refers to circumcision. The situation remains unclear to us. Zipporah, however, understood it and acted decisively to rescue Moses. Zipporah’s name, meaning “bird,” combined with her protection of Moses, is reminiscent of the fierce loyalty to her husband Osiris of the Egyptian goddess Isis, who is often portrayed as a bird of prey. Zipporah is not well rewarded.

At some point before the exodus from Egypt, Moses sends her and the children away (Exod 18:2). After the exodus, her father, the priest of Midian (here called Jethro), comes to visit Moses, bringing Zipporah and her two sons. Moses is told that his father-in-law Jethro is “coming to see you, with your wife and her two sons” (Exod i8:6). Moses goes out to greet Jethro and takes him into his tent, but nothing is said about his greeting Zipporah. Moses’ neglect of Zipporah is obvious, as he (not God) tells the men at Sinai not to approach any women in preparation for God’s approach in three days (Exod 19:2). Since he himself is apparently always in preparation for meeting with God, we can infer that he never sleeps with Zipporah. In Num 12:1 Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses because of the “Cushite woman” whom he married, but they do not mention her name. Midrashic tradition assumed they were discussing Moses’ neglect of Zipporah.

Other interpreters see the Cushite woman as a second wife, with Miriam and Aaron opposed to the marriage. But no children are ever recorded for a second wife of Moses. Bibliography Ashby, Godfrey. “The Bloody Bridegroom: The Interpretation of Exodus 4:24–26.” Expository Times 106 (1995): 203–205. Meyers, Carol, General Editor. Women in Scripture. New York: 2000. Pardes, Ilana. Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach. Cambridge, MA: 1992. Propp, William. “That Bloody Bridegroom (Exodus 4:24–26).” Vetus Testamentum 43 (1993): 495–518. Robinson, Bernard P. “Zipporah to the Rescue: A Contextual Study of Exodus 4:24–26.” Vetus Testamentum 36 (1986): 447–461. Who was Moses’ wife? Did Moses have more than one wife? Who was Moses’ wife?

Did Moses have more than one wife? Subscribe to our Question of the Week : Question: "Who was Moses’ wife? Did Moses have more than one wife?" Answer: The Bible does not say much about Moses’ wife, Zipporah . We know that she was the daughter of a man called Jethro (or Reuel), who was a priest in the land of Midian (Exodus 3:1; cf. 2:18). The Bible does not explicitly say that Moses had more than one wife. However, Numbers 12:1 leads many to surmise another wife: “Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.” The question of the number of Moses’ wives hinges on the identity of this Cushite (or Ethiopian) woman. Is this a reference to Zipporah? Or is this another woman? First, some background. While he was still in Egypt, Moses killed an Egyptian guard who was assaulting a Hebrew slave, and he hid the body. Soon, Moses got word that Pharaoh knew what he had done and was going to kill him, so he fled from Egypt to the land of Midian to avoid prosecution.

When he got to Midian, he sat down by a well, and there he encountered a family living in that area. The priest of Midian had seven daughters, shepherdesses who came to water their father’s flock. Some shepherds tried to drive the women away, but Moses fought the shepherds off and helped the women, even drawing water for their animals. The seven reported this heroic action to their father, and he asked Moses to come and eat with his family. Sometime later, Moses was married to Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel, the priest of Midian (Exodus 2:16–22). In later chapters Reuel is called Jethro. There is no explanation for this name change, but the title “priest of Midian” accompanies both names, and he is called Moses’ father-in-law, so it is safe to assume this was the same man. The only other possibility is that there were two priests of Midian, one called Jethro and one called Reuel and that Moses had married a daughter from each family—but that would be very unlikely.

More evidence that Moses only had one wife is found in Exodus 4:20: “Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt.” Wife is singular, and there is no mention of any other wife or wives that Moses had. On the way to Egypt, Zipporah circumcised their son and thus saved her husband’s life—Moses had neglected to obey the Lord in this matter, and the Lord would have killed Moses had not Zipporah intervened (Exodus 4:24–26). After this event, it seems that Moses sent Zipporah and his sons back home to stay with Jethro. We don’t encounter Zipporah again until after the exodus when she returns to Moses in the wilderness (Exodus 18). That brings us to Numbers 12:1 and the reference to Moses’ marriage to the Cushite, or Ethiopian. It is possible, though not probable, that the Cushite is Zipporah.

Arguing against that possibility are two facts: 1) the link between Midianites and Ethiopians is very difficult to trace convincingly; and 2) the objection to the marriage raised by Miriam and Aaron seems to indicate a recent event. Moses and Zipporah would have been married for over 40 years by this time, and it is unlikely that Moses’ siblings would just then be protesting. Much more likely is that Zipporah had died (although her death is not recorded in Scripture) and that Moses had remarried. Some see in Moses’ marriages to two Gentiles as prefiguring the gospel message going into all the world, blessing even the Gentiles (see Acts 1:8). Zipporah the Midianite was related to the Israelites but only through Abraham’s son by a concubine (Genesis 25:1–2); the Cushite was farther removed from the lineage of Israel. Moses’ marriages expanded in a widening circle into the Gentile world, helping to show that in Abraham’s seed all the nations of the world would be blessed (Genesis 12:3).

ZIPPORAH - JewishEncyclopedia.com JewishEncyclopedia.com The unedited full-text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia - Phrase search: —Biblical Data: Daughter of Jethro and wife of Moses. According to the Bible,Moses met the daughters of Jethro when they were being driven away from a well by shepherds; he assisted them, and was invited into the house of Jethro, who gave him Zipporah to be his wife (Ex. ii. 21). On his return to Egypt, Moses was accompanied by his wife, who saved him from great danger during their journey (ib. iv. 24-26). She appears to have returned with her children to her father's house; for after the exodus from Egypt, Jethro brought Zipporah and her children out to Moses in the wilderness (ib. xviii. 2-5). Zipporah is mentioned only once more in the Bible; namely, in Numbers xii. 1, where she is referred to as "the Ethiopian woman," for having married whom Moses is upbraided by Miriam and Aaron.

—In Rabbinical Literature: Zipporah is mentioned by the Rabbis alternately with praise and with blame. Her name (= "bird") is explained as having been given her because, when questioned by her father as to the man who had rescued her, she flew out of the house like a bird and returned with Moses (Yalḳ., Shim'oni, i. 169). R. Joshua was of the opinion that Zipporah and Moses were always estranged, and that the latter did not love his wife (ib. 268). The name "Cushite" was given to her, it is said, because she was distinguished from other women by her beauty, even as the Ethiopians differed from other people in their complexions. The circumstance that she is twice referred to in one verse as "the Ethiopian" (Num. xii. 1) is explained as indicating that her actions were as distinctive as her beauty, and that she conducted herself no less royally while in her father's house than when she became the wife of Moses (Yalḳ., Shim'oni, 1238; comp. also M. Ḳ. 16b; Yer. Sanh. x.

28d). J. Moses Ethiopian Wife Back to Home page Moses Ethiopian Wife "And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman" (Num. 12.1). Every now and again someone asks how it could be that Moses, the champion of the Lord for the chosen people, could have married an Ethiopian who was therefore of the descendants of Ham, youngest son of Noah. There was strong objection in Israel to such marriages although the assumption that Moses had married before he left Egypt only raises the second question how he later came to marry Zipporah the Midianite when he apparently had left one wife back in Egypt. The word "Ethiopian" is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word "Cush" who in Genesis 10.8 is recorded as one of the sons of Ham. The Cushites became the people known to history as the Sumerians. Eventually many of their tribes migrated, some down the eastern side of the Persian Gulf and into India, where they established the Indus civilization which endured from about 2000 BC to 1500 BC.

Others moved down the western side and across Arabia and over the Red Sea into Africa where they became the people known to the Egyptians as Cush, living mainly in what is now the Sudan. Jewish legend has it that Moses when at the court of Pharaoh led an invading army into Cush and returned in triumph but there is probably no truth in that. "Ethiopia" in the A.V. is taken from old Anglo-Saxon versions that were based largely on the Greek Septuagint. It used this word to translate the Hebrew "Cush", but to the Greeks the whole of the southern world from Africa to India was denoted by the word Ethiopia (English travellers as late as the 17th Century still used the name in that sense). The Egyptians despised the Cushites and called them "vile Cush" and lost no opportunity of waging war on them. It would have been social suicide for Moses to marry into that nation while still at the Egyptian court and most unlikely. Another factor is that by deduction from Scripture records, at that time in history a man was rarely below the age of fifty at marriage, and since Moses fled to Midian at age forty, his marriage whilst there and return forty years later with two sons is perfectly logical.

There is no evidence aside from this questionable statement in Num. 12.1 that he had been married before. Zipporah, his Midianite wife (Exodus 2.15-22) was a descendant of Abraham through his wife Keturah. She was therefore of Semitic race and there would be no valid objection on that score against the union. Midianites were scattered all over the lands south of Canaan and the tribal name of the Sinai Midianites was Cushan (referred to only once in the O.T. in Habakkuk 3.7 "I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble". The almost certain explanation of Num. 12.1 is that by an early copyist's mistake Cushan was turned into Cush by the omission of the final N. The archaic Hebrew N in the days before Ezra was a very insignificant little "squiggle" and could easily have been missed. On this basis the text tells us that Moses had married a Cushan Midianite, which is what Exodus 2 says anyway. The objection raised by Aaron and Miriam to the nationality of his wife was probably evoked by jealousy.

They feared that one of Moses' own sons by Zipporah would be appointed by him to succeed him as Israel's leader when the time came. They, and probably most of their fellows, would much prefer a full blooded son of Israel. They need not have worried; when the time did come, the Lord brought forth His own choice for leader, the stalwart Joshua. This is one of the lessons we all find hard to learn, that the Lord is perfectly able to raise up His own instrument to carry on any section of His work when the torch begins to fall from failing hands. We need not plan and devise and agonize for the continuance of that which He has left in our charge for a space of time. One has to realise that many of the women of the Old Testament history were not of Israel, although of Semitic race Isaac married Rebecca who was of Nahor, brother to Abraham. Jacob married Rachel and Leah of the same stock. Salmon prince of Judah at the entry to the Land married Rahab of Jericho whose name shows she was Semitic, either of Abraham through Esau, Ishmael or Keturah, or of Nahor.

Tamar who carried on the Messianic line from Judah was not of Jacob but her name too reveals that she was Semitic. Ruth who married Boaz was a Moabite, from Lot the son of Haran another brother of Abraham. There was no inconsistency therefore in the case of Moses. There are theories that assert that the name "Cush" means black and that he was a black man, the ancestor of the African races. While it is true that purely Hebrew names often have a meaning which can be traced by the construction of the word as for example Jesus in Greek is the Hebrew Joshua, or more properly Jehoshua, which means God is Saviour, the same practice cannot be applied to non-Hebrew names. There is no Hebrew word closely resembling Cush that means black. Cush was given his name long before there were any Hebrews or any Hebrew language. He was certainly the ancestor of the Sumerians and that language is the oldest one that is now known, but the Sumerian word for black is "gig" - not very similar. No one knows what the nature of the language spoken by Noah and his sons was and only that later languages were derived from it.

It is probably true that many of the black peoples of Africa are descended from Cush but their black colour developed after they had settled in Africa and not before. The various, colours of men in different climes are the result of long habitation under specialised conditions of climate and food, and probably other factors not yet completely understood. There is no reason for thinking that Noah had grandsons in a variety of colours,. In fact there is evidence to the contrary. According to Genesis 10, Cush had a brother named Phut. The Phutites in later generations also crossed into Africa and colonised the north, right across the continent to the Atlantic in days when the present Sahara desert was a fertile well-watered country abounding in forests and animal life. Today there are cave-paintings still existing in that barren and uninhabited waste executed by, and depicting, those Phutites of four thousand years ago but they are not shown as black. They are painted with red and yellow skins; their descendants today are deep brown. There is no means of determining the colour of the first men, nor yet that of Noah and his sons.

The white races tend to think that they must have been white; but the Chinese insist, quite as logically, that they were yellow. We just do not know. What we do know is that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth. (Acts 17.16) and that all men everywhere, of whatever colour, are able to propagate their own kind with each other.. Perhaps the Lord, who is the supreme Artist in creation, sees some advantage in having men ultimately develop five outward colours, whilst still being men inside, just as He has ordained variety in the rest of His Creation. Coming back to the main point, there is not much doubt that the only woman Moses married, the mother of his children was the daughter of the Midianite Chieftain. Jethro gave him hospitality during his term of exile and proved to be as much a reverential worshipper of the true God as was Moses himself. AOH

Question: In the Bible who was the wife of Moses?
Answer: ZIPPORAH